History? Because it's Here!
  • Welcome to History? ...
  • Sing Along to the Spring Siren Song
  • Ohio Ghosts Whisper....
  • Major Archie Butt Had a Gift for Friendship, Even on the Titanic
  • A Love Story for Valentine's Day - Marie Antoinette and Count Axel von Fersen
  • Valentine's Day Crossword
  • Titanic Headlines, Titanic Questions
  • Hoover Dam
  • Journalists in History
    • Ernie Pyle
    • Robert St. John
    • Joseph Morton
    • Robert Cromie
    • Agnes Meyer and Katherine Graham
    • Walter Cronkite
    • Sigrid Schultz
    • Jack Denton Scott
  • March is Women's History Month!
  • Alcohol in American History - John Barleycorn Tells Some of His Story
  • As Relevant As Today- The Past Connects with the Present
    • Ignoring History is Irrelevant
    • Honoring a Veteran: Veteran's Day, November 11, 2012
    • December 1, 1958: The Day Chicago Cried with Our Lady of the Angels
    • Remembering the Vietnam War - 37 Years Present
    • Rebellion, Murder, and Voting Rights in Rhode Island
  • Words and Remembrance-May 1970 at Kent State in Ohio and Jackson State in Mississippi
  • Rub-a-dub-dub in Your Historical Bathtub!
  • The Freedom Summer Murders Changed American Racial Attitudes
  • To Beard Or Not To Beard - That is the Historical Question
  • Scarecrows Historically Speaking
  • Diversionary Thoughts for the Dentists Chair
  • Humans in History
    • Suzanne Valadon and Maurice Utrillo, Artists of Montmartre
    • Grandmother Clara Zetkin Speaks
    • High Stepping Ohio Horseman
    • Philip Teitelbaum Creates a Money Making Machine
    • The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake..
    • Poul le Cour
    • John Collier's Fight for Indian Rights and the First and Last Superintendent of Indian Affairs
    • Lt. Colonel Ely Parker, First Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs
    • Clara and Henry Leffingwell - An English, American, and Australian Story
    • The Murderer and the Museum Curator - Nathan Leopold and Kirtland's Warbler
    • Wilbur Carr, the State Department, and Immigration - 1920-1945
    • Billy Sunday Preached His Prayer Pennant Willing Baseball Story
    • William Alden Smith, Michigan's Titanic Senator
    • Helen and Dickinson Bishop Survive An Earthquake and the Titanic
    • Faster Than Flames: Locomotive Engineer James Root Races the Hinckley Fire
    • Three Hot and Contentious Weeks in July 1925 - The Scopes "Monkey " Trial
    • The Confederados Become Brazilian, but Honor Their American Southern Roots
    • Fascinating Footnote: The Goosedown Divorce
    • Clara and Henry Leffingwell - An English, Australian, and American Story
    • The Molly Maguires - Trailblazers or Terrorists?
    • Lt. Uriah Phillips Levy Fights Prejudice and Saves Monticello
    • The Stavisky Affair - Sasha the Suave Scammer
    • General Santa Anna, Chicle, and Chewing Gum
    • James J. Metcalfe, Gangbuster, Reporter, Poet
  • Women Along the Historical Way
    • Lucena Brockway Adapts to Life in the Keweenaw Copper Mining Country of Lake Superior
    • Ida Tarbell- "Bachelor Soul." Transitional Woman, or Both?
    • SOE Agent Andree Borrel Lived Several Lifetimes in Her 24 Years
    • Ruth Becker's Faith Helped Her Survive the Titanic and Life Beyond
    • Clara Zetkin Speaks Against Hitler in the German Reichstag
    • Maria Mitchell, America's First Woman Astronomer
    • Lee Lawrence Ansberry - The Courage to Live
    • Lydia Latrobe Roosevelt and the First Mississippi River Steamboat
    • Margaret Fox Kane's Victorian Love Story
    • Chicagoan Kate Kellogg Meets a Ghost on a Train
  • Acting History-History Plays
  • Practicing History
  • Classroom Clues
    • Power Point Pointers
    • Pieces of the World History Puzzle
    • Time Machine Tours
  • The Haunted Hollows of History
    • Does Columbus Haunt His Ships...
    • The Phantom Plowman
    • The Western Reserve and the Gilcher
    • The Ticonderoga's Haunted Bell
    • The Train Chaser
    • Mary Surratt
    • Farmer Brunett's Ghost Lantern
    • A Bicyclist Encounters a Phantom
  • Wading in Historical Waters
    • The Lady and the Patriot- The Fateful Voyage of Theodosia Burr Alston
    • Operation Dynamo at Dunkirk- Snatching Soldiers from the Fingers of the Nazis
    • Beaver Island - Mormon Kingdom, Fisherman's Paradise, Pirate Lair
    • Captain Jedediah Spinnet and His Sons Caught Fish and Pirates
    • Roman Emperor Caligula and His Legendary Lake Nemi Ships
    • Great Lakes Steamers and the Black Hawk War
    • Captain Harry Ward Cruised Gold Fields and Commanded a Slave Ship
    • "Father Put Me in the Boat-" The Story of the Northfleet
  • Catching Up with Clio's Creatures
    • Gertie the Duck, Black Bill, and the Muffled Memorial Day Parade
    • Verdun Belle Rescues a Shell-Shocked World War I Marine
    • Storks are the Stuff of Legend and Every Day Life
    • Susa White Gives Her Pet Lamb Nebby to Boston
    • Sergeant Stubby, the World War I Dog
    • Pistol Head, Cocker Spaniel, Combat Veteran
    • Sallie the Civil War Heroine
  • Creative History
    • World War II Photographs by Sandy Blakeman
    • Church Going is a Common Historical Experience
  • Musical Muse
    • Lydia Maria Child Writes and Explores Over the River and Through the Wood
    • Solomon Linda, Mbube, Wimoweh, The Lion Sleeps Tonight
    • Leroy Anderson Captures Fun and Feelings in His Music
    • Harry Barnhart Helped Soldiers Sing Their Way Through World War I >
      • Presidents in a Package-George Washington >
        • Mary Breckinridge, Circuit Riding Nurse and Founder of the Frontier Nursing Service
        • George and Harry Washington Fight for Freedom
        • Charles Wedel Served on Manitowoc Submarines >
          • Navy Diver Frank Prebezich Remembered Pearl Harbor by Salvaging Battleships
          • Stan Valentine at Pearl Harbor
          • World War II - Serving Aboard the USS Enterpise
          • Michel Linovich-an Italian in Napoleon's Grand Army
          • Charles Whittlesey- Scholar, Soldier, Humanist
          • The Five Sullivan Brothers Stick Together...
          • Kentuckian James Andrews and the Yankee Bridge Burners
          • General Grant, General Babcock, General McDonald and Journalist Colony: A Study in Scandal and Friendship
          • The Dudman Family Lived the Meaning...
        • George Washington Travels French Creek to Fort Le Boeuf
        • Miracle in World War I - the Christmas
        • Presidents in a Package - Thomas Jefferson
        • President James Monroe Inspects Michigan Territory - 1817
        • President Grover Cleveland's Secret Surgery on the Steam Yacht Oneida
        • John Kissinger Volunteers to Get Yellow Fever
        • Mary Todd Lincoln Considered April Her "Season of Sadness"
        • Violets for Valor - Two Bereaved Fathers in the Civil War
      • Clarence and Mildred Beltmann - Persevering Through Hard Times
    • Singing Kumbayah- Harmonious in Hope, Discordant in Derision
    • James Bird - The Battle of Lake Erie, The Execution, The Ballad
    • PDF Musical Muse- Music History
    • Phil Ochs- A Musical Conscience of the 1960s and Beyond
    • Dan Fogelberg and His Music
    • Philip Paul Bliss and His Trunk of Songs
    • Riding with Private Andrew Malone: For All of those who didn't Make it Home
    • Do You Ken John Peel?
    • "Mind the Music and the Step-" Yankee Doodle Sings History
  • Back Water River and British Bluster
  • Soldier's Stories
  • September 11, 2001 is a "Mixed Feeling Day"
  • Memories of the Pearl Harbor Attack Haven't Faded with Time
    • Memories of Pearl Harbor
  • Light and Radiance - Figure Skater Laurence Owen and Her Team
  • Historic Halloween Tales
  • Thanksgiving Perspectives
    • Drive A Thanksgiving Turkey!
    • The Centerpiece of Thanksgiving Celebrations is Giving Thanks >
      • Presidents in a Package - Abraham Lincoln
      • Americans and Britons Celebrated Thanksgiving 1942 in War Weathered England
      • Writing a Gratitude Journal for Thanksgiving Day
      • "Do You Hear What I Hear?" >
        • Christmas Eve, 1941-A Sailor
        • Alfred Burt and Wihla Hutson
        • Milwaukee Soldiers and Sailors in World War II
        • History Sports Scenes >
          • Throwing Out the First Pitch - American Presidents On Opening Day
          • Kenesaw Mountain Landis
          • Jim Rice - A Big Time Coach in a Small Town
          • Playing Lucky Baseball with Lady Luck Sitting in the Catbird Seat
        • Silent Night Had Simple Beginnings >
          • The Angels Song - It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
          • Stuffing Stockings on St. Nicholas Day >
            • Mrs. Santa Claus- A Strong and Supportive
            • Katherine Davis-The Little Drummer Boy
        • Is There A Santa Claus? Virginia O'Hanlon and
        • Carols Silent Night and O Holy Night
        • Happy New Year
        • The Holocaust in History >
          • Carl von Ossietzky Wins a Nobel Prize While in a Nazi Concentration Camp
      • City Scapes

Memories of the Pearl Harbor Attack Haven't Faded with Time

Picture
Wikimedia Commons

by Kathy Warnes

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor changed the lives of Americans everywhere. Haunting historical images of the day travel across time and space.

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, the voice of John Charles Daly from the Columbia Radio Broadcast resembled the measured tones of a solemn minister delivering his Sunday sermon.

“…There is a conviction in official quarters  that Japan has officially cast the die…The Japanese have attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu on the Hawaiian islands.”

Yet, there is a sense of immediacy because Daly read the news bulletins as soon as they came in.

“…KGMB in Honolulu reports air raids are still on and anti-aircraft fire can be heard in steady bursts.”

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Spoke the Next Day 

The next day, the voice of Franklin Delano Roosevelt summarized the situation for history:

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The attack was dastardly and unprovoked. Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. We will gain the inevitable triumph.”

The images of the date which lived in infamy include billowing clouds of smoke and crippled battleships sinking like mortally wounded dinosaurs. The images of Pearl Harbor are men and women somehow surviving the smoke and flames and swarming like ants down the sides of ships to rescue boats. The images are of men surviving to fight again.

One of the images of the day is Dorie Miller, a 22-year-old black mess sergeant second class on the battleship West Virginia. The West Virginia had been heavily hit, and Captain Mervyn S. Bennion, mortally wounded, stood on the signal bridge directing his men.

Dorie Miller had never been trained to fire a machine gun, but he manned a machine gun near his captain while the other men tried to remove Captain Bennion to safety. The men directed a line over the flames from the forward aircraft lookout to rescue ships and tried to convince the captain to leave. Captain Bennion ordered his men to abandon ship, and he was last seen trying to get to his feet. He was alone when he died.

Ordinary People Hear the News of Pearl Harbor 

Images of people in America hearing the news of Pearl Harbor are as diverse as their personalities and lifestyle. Doreen Medenhall of Milwaukee, who later became a WAVE, heard the news on the pantry radio while she was baking cookies. That night she and a date went to a restaurant on North Avenue. Her date wore his civilian clothes instead of his Navy uniform, but she knew that this was probably the last time that he would wear his civilian clothes for a long time. The band played “Elmer’s Tune,” and the seriousness of the situation made them sit at their table staring at each other. They didn’t even dance.

Virginia Witte of Milwaukee remembers that many people didn’t realize the full implication of the news at first, but sensed that something life changing had happened that Sunday morning in Hawaii. She eventually joined the WAVES.

Many Americans like Jim Burns and Thomas and Betty Davison of Milwaukee had finished their Sunday dinners and were listening to the football game when the news came over the radio.

“We knew this was war and all we could do was sit around and talk about it for the rest of that Sunday,” Tom Davison said. “But the next day, Monday, I went down to the Naval Recruiting office.” He spent the war working in the Sturgeon Bay shipyards, and as a United States Customs inspector in El Paso, Texas.

“I knew my brother and I were going go get into it,” Jim Burns said. “I was over visiting my parents and I remember thinking how hard this was going to be on them.” Jim joined the Navy and served on a minesweeper in the invasions of Sicily, Solerno and Anzio.

Pearl Harbor Casualties 

The sight and sound realities add up to staggering loss totals at Pearl Harbor. The Japanese sank or severely damaged five battleships, three destroyers,and the mine layers Oglala and the Utah. The three battleships Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Tennessee, and three cruisers, Helena, Honolulu and Raleigh, and the seaplane tender Curtiss and the repair ship Vestal, were damaged. The Japanese destroyed 80 naval aircraft of all types, and the Army lost 97 planes on Hickam and Wheeler Fields.

The American Navy and Army did fight back. Navy anti-aircraft shot down 28 Japanese planes and Army pursuit planes shot down over 20, which was about the half the number that hit Pearl Harbor. According to the Navy, the Japanese didn’t realize how much damage they had done at Pearl Harbor. If Japan had brought in her fleet behind the 105 planes, she could have captured Hawaii.

The most serious American losses were people – the officers and enlisted men and women of the Navy, Marine Corps and Army. When the Japanese planes finally headed back to their carriers, they left 2,403 dead, 188 destroyed planes and a crippled Pacific Fleet that included 8 damaged or destroyed battleships. Japanese Admiral Yamamoto was reported to have said of the Pearl Harbor attack which he planned, “I can run wild for six months…after that, I have no expectation of success.”

After the Pearl Harbor attack, most Americans no longer disagreed about isolationism, neutrality or involvement in World War II. American unity clicked into place.

The Navy Hospital Ship Solace

The Navy Hospital Ship Solace was moored next to the battleship Arizona at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and immediately sent her motor launches with stretcher parties to the burning Arizona. Solace personnel helped evacuate the wounded, and pulled men from the water that was covered in burning oil. The Solace boat crews made several trips to the Arizona, West Virginia, and then to the Oklahoma. One story goes that a nurse found a chaplain’s cross glinting in the flames on the deck of the burning Arizona.

As President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, we gained “the inevitable triumph,” and now the images of infamy are receding into history. Eye and ear witnesses are accumulating mortality along with their memories.

Images of Pearl Harbor include the reality of America being caught woefully unprepared yet fighting its way from defeat to victory. The image of the Arizona Memorial with both Japanese and American visitors honoring the men entombed inside of it inspires. The image of the Chaplin’s cross glinting in the flames from the Arizona endures.

Diver Frank Prebezich Remembers Pearl Harbor After December 7, 1941

Part of Frank Prebezich’s story began with a warning to those aboard the battleship Oklahoma on December 7, 1941. This message blared over the ship’s squaw box.

All hands to general quarters! This is no—-! The Japs are attacking!”

Sailors rushed to their battle stations and kept firing until the deck was awash as the ship keeled over on the shallow bottom of Pearl Harbor. Hundreds of men were trapped below, but civilian workers who later heard tapping cut holes in the hull and rescued 32 men.

Navy Salvage Diver Frank Prebezich Worked on the Oklahoma

Frank Prebezich, a Navy salvage diver, arrived a week later to help raise the sunken battleships.

“There were overturned ships and oil slicks still on the water,” Frank recalled. He worked forward on the Oklahoma closing and sealing hatches and doors to permit air to be pumped in and the ship raised to the surface.

After he graduated from the Pier 88 Salvage Diver’s School in New York, Frank became an instructor at the school. He returned to the city in 1945 to help right the French liner Normandie, which had burned, sank and capsized alongside its pier.

In 1936 , Frank began his military career when he enlisted in the Naval Reserve in Milwaukee. In 1940, after he had graduated from the Navy Diving School he became a a 2nd Class Petty Officer, and his unit was mobilized for a year of active duty.

Then came “the Day of Infamy.” He arrived in Pearl Harbor Hawaii aboard the repair ship Prometheus. The ships’ mission:  Clear Pearl Harbor and save as many ships as possible.

One of the hazards of the task that Frank remembered most vividly was the danger from the poisonous gas from the ammunition in the water and the vapor from decomposing bodies.

“We had a patch installed in our helmets and when it turned colors we were supposed to come up right away because that meant the gases were concentrated pretty heavily,” he said.

 Frank Prebezich Goes to New Caledonia

The Oklahoma and other battle ships, except the Arizona, returned to service in 1942, and Frank was sent to an advance naval base in New Caledonia where he spent the remainder of the war aboard a repair ship.

Two months before his outfit was mobilized, Frank married Trudie. While overseas in 1942, he received a telegram that told him he had a son. “I passed out cigars,” he recalled.

Throughout his hazardous wartime duty, Frank managed to keep his sense of humor. He remembered one particular dive with a smile. On June 23, 1942, he was a diver attached to a repair ship in the harbor at the advance base at Noumea, New Caledonia. The diving officer summoned him and told him to report to the San Diego, one of the two cruisers anchored in the harbor. He said that during the last engagement a small oil slick was noticed in the ship’s wake and “we knew that could leave a trail for the enemy to follow. My job was to locate the leak and find out what caused it.”

Frank Prebezich Dives to Find a Leak

Frank made all of the preparations for diving and dressed for a shallow dive. Descending about 10 feet, he noticed that one of the rivets was leaking air, which no doubt came from the air that was being pumped into the fuel oil tanks. Down further, he noticed a couple more leaks. He surfaced to report his findings. The Navy had some new equipment that he was not familiar with so he was given a fast course on how to operate the new equipment.

Again he went down to work on the first rivet. The object was to center the tool over the rivet and pull the trigger of the tool, which was supposed to   fire a charge and eject a hardened projector into the rivet, expand it, and stop the leak.He pulled the trigger a few times with no results. He surfaced to report his dilemma. The officer read over the instructions again and determined that a small water seal was required when being used under water.

Frank descended again. This time he followed all of the instructions and it worked. After expanding the three rivets, he noticed some other leaks developing farther down toward the hinges. He went down to investigate and before he finished, he had to go down even deeper under the ship.

Frank Prebezich Sees a Red Light Above Him

An hour and seven rivets later, it seemed that he had stopped all of the leaks. He signaled his tender that he was coming up. As he started up he looked up and was startled to see a fire red light above him. He was so shocked that for a moment he stopped to compose himself. He feared that he might pass out, fall farther down, and injure himself. He grasped his lifeline and after a few seconds felt a bit better and started up again, slowly.

When he broke the surface, he discovered a beautiful, clear day with a bright sun. Quickly he climbed aboard the launch, took off his diving mask and tried to figure out what had caused the fire red light above him.

He looked over at the stern and noticed that the water was very foamy and blue. Then he found out that the cruiser San Juan had a laundry discharge right where he was diving. “The San Juan had discharged a batch of water used to wash dungarees. As I was coming up looking into the bright sunlight, everything had turned bright red.”

References

Lord, Walter. Day of Infamy. 60th Anniversary : The Classic Account of the Bombing of Pearl Harbor. Henry Holt, 2001.

Prange, Gordon W. Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History. Penguin, 1991.

Prange, Gordon. At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. Penguin Books, 1982.

Stinnett, Robert. Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor. Free Press, 2001.


Copyright Notice

All of the material on this website is copyrighted.  You are free to link to any of the articles and to download any of the PDF books to read and use as long as you credit me as the author. I fully hope and expect the classroom activities to be freely used.      kathywarnes@gmail.com
Picture
Sunset on Lake Michigan in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Welcome to History? ...
  • Sing Along to the Spring Siren Song
  • Ohio Ghosts Whisper....
  • Major Archie Butt Had a Gift for Friendship, Even on the Titanic
  • A Love Story for Valentine's Day - Marie Antoinette and Count Axel von Fersen
  • Valentine's Day Crossword
  • Titanic Headlines, Titanic Questions
  • Hoover Dam
  • Journalists in History
    • Ernie Pyle
    • Robert St. John
    • Joseph Morton
    • Robert Cromie
    • Agnes Meyer and Katherine Graham
    • Walter Cronkite
    • Sigrid Schultz
    • Jack Denton Scott
  • March is Women's History Month!
  • Alcohol in American History - John Barleycorn Tells Some of His Story
  • As Relevant As Today- The Past Connects with the Present
    • Ignoring History is Irrelevant
    • Honoring a Veteran: Veteran's Day, November 11, 2012
    • December 1, 1958: The Day Chicago Cried with Our Lady of the Angels
    • Remembering the Vietnam War - 37 Years Present
    • Rebellion, Murder, and Voting Rights in Rhode Island
  • Words and Remembrance-May 1970 at Kent State in Ohio and Jackson State in Mississippi
  • Rub-a-dub-dub in Your Historical Bathtub!
  • The Freedom Summer Murders Changed American Racial Attitudes
  • To Beard Or Not To Beard - That is the Historical Question
  • Scarecrows Historically Speaking
  • Diversionary Thoughts for the Dentists Chair
  • Humans in History
    • Suzanne Valadon and Maurice Utrillo, Artists of Montmartre
    • Grandmother Clara Zetkin Speaks
    • High Stepping Ohio Horseman
    • Philip Teitelbaum Creates a Money Making Machine
    • The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake..
    • Poul le Cour
    • John Collier's Fight for Indian Rights and the First and Last Superintendent of Indian Affairs
    • Lt. Colonel Ely Parker, First Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs
    • Clara and Henry Leffingwell - An English, American, and Australian Story
    • The Murderer and the Museum Curator - Nathan Leopold and Kirtland's Warbler
    • Wilbur Carr, the State Department, and Immigration - 1920-1945
    • Billy Sunday Preached His Prayer Pennant Willing Baseball Story
    • William Alden Smith, Michigan's Titanic Senator
    • Helen and Dickinson Bishop Survive An Earthquake and the Titanic
    • Faster Than Flames: Locomotive Engineer James Root Races the Hinckley Fire
    • Three Hot and Contentious Weeks in July 1925 - The Scopes "Monkey " Trial
    • The Confederados Become Brazilian, but Honor Their American Southern Roots
    • Fascinating Footnote: The Goosedown Divorce
    • Clara and Henry Leffingwell - An English, Australian, and American Story
    • The Molly Maguires - Trailblazers or Terrorists?
    • Lt. Uriah Phillips Levy Fights Prejudice and Saves Monticello
    • The Stavisky Affair - Sasha the Suave Scammer
    • General Santa Anna, Chicle, and Chewing Gum
    • James J. Metcalfe, Gangbuster, Reporter, Poet
  • Women Along the Historical Way
    • Lucena Brockway Adapts to Life in the Keweenaw Copper Mining Country of Lake Superior
    • Ida Tarbell- "Bachelor Soul." Transitional Woman, or Both?
    • SOE Agent Andree Borrel Lived Several Lifetimes in Her 24 Years
    • Ruth Becker's Faith Helped Her Survive the Titanic and Life Beyond
    • Clara Zetkin Speaks Against Hitler in the German Reichstag
    • Maria Mitchell, America's First Woman Astronomer
    • Lee Lawrence Ansberry - The Courage to Live
    • Lydia Latrobe Roosevelt and the First Mississippi River Steamboat
    • Margaret Fox Kane's Victorian Love Story
    • Chicagoan Kate Kellogg Meets a Ghost on a Train
  • Acting History-History Plays
  • Practicing History
  • Classroom Clues
    • Power Point Pointers
    • Pieces of the World History Puzzle
    • Time Machine Tours
  • The Haunted Hollows of History
    • Does Columbus Haunt His Ships...
    • The Phantom Plowman
    • The Western Reserve and the Gilcher
    • The Ticonderoga's Haunted Bell
    • The Train Chaser
    • Mary Surratt
    • Farmer Brunett's Ghost Lantern
    • A Bicyclist Encounters a Phantom
  • Wading in Historical Waters
    • The Lady and the Patriot- The Fateful Voyage of Theodosia Burr Alston
    • Operation Dynamo at Dunkirk- Snatching Soldiers from the Fingers of the Nazis
    • Beaver Island - Mormon Kingdom, Fisherman's Paradise, Pirate Lair
    • Captain Jedediah Spinnet and His Sons Caught Fish and Pirates
    • Roman Emperor Caligula and His Legendary Lake Nemi Ships
    • Great Lakes Steamers and the Black Hawk War
    • Captain Harry Ward Cruised Gold Fields and Commanded a Slave Ship
    • "Father Put Me in the Boat-" The Story of the Northfleet
  • Catching Up with Clio's Creatures
    • Gertie the Duck, Black Bill, and the Muffled Memorial Day Parade
    • Verdun Belle Rescues a Shell-Shocked World War I Marine
    • Storks are the Stuff of Legend and Every Day Life
    • Susa White Gives Her Pet Lamb Nebby to Boston
    • Sergeant Stubby, the World War I Dog
    • Pistol Head, Cocker Spaniel, Combat Veteran
    • Sallie the Civil War Heroine
  • Creative History
    • World War II Photographs by Sandy Blakeman
    • Church Going is a Common Historical Experience
  • Musical Muse
    • Lydia Maria Child Writes and Explores Over the River and Through the Wood
    • Solomon Linda, Mbube, Wimoweh, The Lion Sleeps Tonight
    • Leroy Anderson Captures Fun and Feelings in His Music
    • Harry Barnhart Helped Soldiers Sing Their Way Through World War I >
      • Presidents in a Package-George Washington >
        • Mary Breckinridge, Circuit Riding Nurse and Founder of the Frontier Nursing Service
        • George and Harry Washington Fight for Freedom
        • Charles Wedel Served on Manitowoc Submarines >
          • Navy Diver Frank Prebezich Remembered Pearl Harbor by Salvaging Battleships
          • Stan Valentine at Pearl Harbor
          • World War II - Serving Aboard the USS Enterpise
          • Michel Linovich-an Italian in Napoleon's Grand Army
          • Charles Whittlesey- Scholar, Soldier, Humanist
          • The Five Sullivan Brothers Stick Together...
          • Kentuckian James Andrews and the Yankee Bridge Burners
          • General Grant, General Babcock, General McDonald and Journalist Colony: A Study in Scandal and Friendship
          • The Dudman Family Lived the Meaning...
        • George Washington Travels French Creek to Fort Le Boeuf
        • Miracle in World War I - the Christmas
        • Presidents in a Package - Thomas Jefferson
        • President James Monroe Inspects Michigan Territory - 1817
        • President Grover Cleveland's Secret Surgery on the Steam Yacht Oneida
        • John Kissinger Volunteers to Get Yellow Fever
        • Mary Todd Lincoln Considered April Her "Season of Sadness"
        • Violets for Valor - Two Bereaved Fathers in the Civil War
      • Clarence and Mildred Beltmann - Persevering Through Hard Times
    • Singing Kumbayah- Harmonious in Hope, Discordant in Derision
    • James Bird - The Battle of Lake Erie, The Execution, The Ballad
    • PDF Musical Muse- Music History
    • Phil Ochs- A Musical Conscience of the 1960s and Beyond
    • Dan Fogelberg and His Music
    • Philip Paul Bliss and His Trunk of Songs
    • Riding with Private Andrew Malone: For All of those who didn't Make it Home
    • Do You Ken John Peel?
    • "Mind the Music and the Step-" Yankee Doodle Sings History
  • Back Water River and British Bluster
  • Soldier's Stories
  • September 11, 2001 is a "Mixed Feeling Day"
  • Memories of the Pearl Harbor Attack Haven't Faded with Time
    • Memories of Pearl Harbor
  • Light and Radiance - Figure Skater Laurence Owen and Her Team
  • Historic Halloween Tales
  • Thanksgiving Perspectives
    • Drive A Thanksgiving Turkey!
    • The Centerpiece of Thanksgiving Celebrations is Giving Thanks >
      • Presidents in a Package - Abraham Lincoln
      • Americans and Britons Celebrated Thanksgiving 1942 in War Weathered England
      • Writing a Gratitude Journal for Thanksgiving Day
      • "Do You Hear What I Hear?" >
        • Christmas Eve, 1941-A Sailor
        • Alfred Burt and Wihla Hutson
        • Milwaukee Soldiers and Sailors in World War II
        • History Sports Scenes >
          • Throwing Out the First Pitch - American Presidents On Opening Day
          • Kenesaw Mountain Landis
          • Jim Rice - A Big Time Coach in a Small Town
          • Playing Lucky Baseball with Lady Luck Sitting in the Catbird Seat
        • Silent Night Had Simple Beginnings >
          • The Angels Song - It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
          • Stuffing Stockings on St. Nicholas Day >
            • Mrs. Santa Claus- A Strong and Supportive
            • Katherine Davis-The Little Drummer Boy
        • Is There A Santa Claus? Virginia O'Hanlon and
        • Carols Silent Night and O Holy Night
        • Happy New Year
        • The Holocaust in History >
          • Carl von Ossietzky Wins a Nobel Prize While in a Nazi Concentration Camp
      • City Scapes